From the LA times, August 6, 2005

I recieved this article in an e-mail and I thought that it might be of interest to the rest of you. 

Heroes who pass out snacks - LA Times  

 By Meghan Daum  

August 6, 2005  

TO ANYONE WHO'S ever smirked, snapped, whined, yelled or (you know who you are) thrown things at a flight attendant, let's consider this: Last Tuesday, the cabin crew of Air France Flight 358 evacuated all 297 passengers after a crash landing in Toronto. They did this in less than two minutes. Moments later, the plane burst into flames.  

I know what you're thinking: "If they can get 300 people off in under two minutes, why does it take 45 minutes to board a plane?" As in all things air travel-related, the lame jokes abound. ("I tried to jump down the slide, but they stopped me because the seat-belt sign was on!")   But maybe seeing 10 flight attendants save about 300 lives in less time than it took to watch the safety demonstration will put an end to the jokes. It's been a long time coming. Somehow, passengers have been lulled into thinking that flight attendants are there primarily to serve as waiters and arbiters of luggage space. But accidents have a way of reducing inconveniences like
pillow shortages and paltry snacks to shamefully petty concerns.  

Several years ago, while researching a magazine article about the "secret world of flight attendants," I spent a week at the flight attendant training school of a major airline. Granted, this was three years before 9/11, back when the combination of dreary mundanity and diminishing leg room had left people with about as much respect for air travel as they had for pre-owned Yugos. "Air rage" was the coinage of the day, and incidents of violence against airline personnel had risen dramatically.  

I visited the school because I was a smug young journalist working for a smug glossy magazine and I was hoping for some salacious details about a profession that had fascinated the public since the early days of commercial flight. Since airline industry deregulation in 1978, the archetypal sex-kitten stewardess made famous by books such as the 1960s-era "Coffee, Tea or Me" had devolved into a haggard assortment of short-tempered corporate drones. The heyday of air travel, when flight attendants were required to be female, slim, unmarried and possessed of the uncanny ability to cook eggs to order during turbulence, was long gone.  

But my assignment was doomed. The courses I observed had less to do with applying makeup and charming businessmen than with something far less sensational: safety.   The drills went on and on and on. We practiced verbal instructions until we could recite them like Beatles lyrics. We rehearsed procedures until every exit door and window, every inflatable slide and alarm bell felt as familiar as the dashboard controls on a car we'd owned for a decade.  

I can still remember the sensation of opening the hatch of the exit window in the cabin simulator. I can still hear the siren and the exact wording of the evacuation commands for the slides. "Keep your feet together, jump into the slide," the students yelled until they were hoarse. I watched as they learned how to inflate rafts. I ran around the simulator with them as they enacted crash after crash, knowing full well that no matter how intensive the training, nothing but focus and sheer guts would see them through the real thing.  

Among the other things I learned about flight attendants was that their starting salaries could be as low as $15,000 a year. They regularly have to work 14-hour days but are often paid for only eight hours. Most have to buy their own uniforms for hundreds of dollars. That means they often have only one, which they have to wash out in hotel sinks.   (This is the sad fact that noone realizes) -h.

Air France rightfully praised the crew of Flight 358 for its
professionalism. But it's the flying public that needs to recognize such contributions. Airline deregulation, which slashed prices along with amenities, legroom and salaries, caused many of us to forget our manners.  Then Sept. 11 introduced a narrative that suggested the fates of airliners lay in the hands of passengers, whether terrorists or heroes.  

But, as we learned on Tuesday, accidents still occur and we still rely on those who are trained to protect us from potentially tragic outcomes. On airplanes, it so happens that these are the same people who pass out the inedible food and tell us when our bags won't fit overhead. But we've seen they can do a lot more than that. Let's be polite.

 
MEGHAN DAUM is an essayist and novelist in Los Angeles.

A disturbing development in my work safety...

TSA Proposal Questioned By Flight Attendants
 
 By Sara Kehaulani Goo
 
  The nation's largest flight attendants union yesterday questioned a federal government proposal to end the ban on knives, ice picks and razor blades on board commercial airplanes.
 
 "As the front-line personnel with little or no effective security training or means of self defense, such weapons could prove fatal to our members," Patricia A. Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said in a letter to Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley, the new leader of the Transportation Security Administration. "They may not assist in breaking through a flightdeck door, but they could definitely lead to the deaths of flight attendants and passengers."
 
 The TSA is reviewing security procedures at the nation's airports to determine whether they protect against current terrorist threats. An internal TSA document last week detailed proposals that focus on protecting the nation from an inflight suicide bombing attack and suggested that certain categories of passengers, such as high-ranking government officials and airline crews, could be exempt from security screening. The proposals also included a possible end to the ban on certain items allowed in carry-on luggage.
 
 A TSA spokeswoman said the proposals would not reduce the level of security at airports, adding that no final decisions have been made. "The approach is about focusing the limited resources TSA has where the threat is the greatest," spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said. "The challenge here is to look at security through the lens of threat vulnerability and consequence. The suggestions that are being considered are part of a larger effort to challenge the measures we have in place to help us improve security."
 
 The flight attendants, whose union represents 46,000 members, said that easing the ban on some prohibited items could pose a safety risk on board the aircraft and lead to incidents that terrorize passengers even if they do not involve a hijacking.
 
 "Even a plane that is attacked and results in only a few deaths would seriously jeopardize the progress we have all made in restoring confidence of the flying public," Friend said in her letter. "We urge you to reconsider allowing such dangerous items -- which have no place in thecabin of an aircraft in the first place -- to be introduced into our workplace."
 
 The TSA's proposals come at a time when Congress is cutting the number of federal airport screeners and as security experts increasingly believe that U.S. airliners are adequately protected from another Sept. 11-style hijacking because of reinforced cockpit doors, air marshals and more vigilant passengers.
 
 Yesterday, the pilots union said it agreed with many of the TSA's new proposals and welcomed the review. "We applaud the fact the TSA is taking the time to review their procedures and their screening process," said Bob Hesselbein, who serves as head of security at the Air Line Pilots Association, the union representing 64,000 U.S. airline pilots.
 
 Hesselbein suggested that security screeners could be more effective if they were trained to do more than search for scissors and Swiss Army knives of innocent travelers.

One heck of a week...

From running late, check rides, weather and mechanicals, is there anything else that can go wrong this week?

 

Ok, ever have one of those days that you shouldn't have gotten out of bed?  Well this whole weekend has been like that for me.

It all started out Thursday on my way to work, I was rummaging thru my bag for something, listening to my IPOD.  (I had just turned it on, and it was on full blast)  This older women who could have doubled for Tammy Fae's mother informs me that I have to turn my volume down.  I nod and continue to rummage through my bag to find what I was looking for, then turn my volume down.  I guess I wasn't fast enough for her liking because she glared at me, got up in a huff and moved to another seat.

I finally get to the airport, running a tad bit behind.  I race to my gate and meet up with my crew and get everything ready for our flight to Omaha.  We get to Omaha and someone informs me that she is an inflight manager from LGA, and she just gave us a checkride.  AHHHHH!!  I am sparing the details, THAT is a whole other story.  Our flight back to Chicago and then to Cleveland was uneventful...

The next day we were supposed to do a flight from Cleveland to Dallas at 1pm.  Well the flight got pushed back untill 4pm because the plane had a mechanical in Dallas.  Luckily we were still at the hotel.  When we finally get to Dallas, weather delays have backed up the entire airport.  We were an hour late going from Dallas to Little Rock.  Ohhhhhh....  And I had a precious on that flight too, who thought that all 4'10" of him was the neatest thing since sliced bread and decided to hit on me.  So I sat in the back and listened to the passengers around me making fun of him.

Yesterday afternoon, we get to the airport to find that our flight had down graded.  YEA!!!  I am the senior flight attendant, so I got to deadhead!  After spending 45 min trying to get ahold of Crew Scheduling to let them know that I didn't want to work the flight...(there was a problem with the phone systems)

We get to Dallas, and had a 2 hour break before goingto Oklahoma City.  I look in the computer to find that our next airplane was already there!  Could it be that we were ACTUALLY going to get to our overnight on time?  I spoke too soon.  The gate agent called to put a hold on the flight to wait for some connecting passengers who were running late.  We get everyone on board, close up and push back. Then we have a mechanical issue that needs to be looked at.  when the Mechanics FINALLY get to us, it turns out to be just a circut breaker that needed to be reset.  Now we are off on our merry way, only an hour behind schedule!

Now I have only one flight back to Chicago today.   With everything else that has gone wrong this trip I am wondering what kind of hell fire and brimstone that I will have to endure before I make it back home!

 

And last but not least.... from USAToday.com

This is what happens when you use the "B-word" on an airplane even though you may only be joking...

 

Written threat found on Southwest Airlines plane

 

HOUSTON (AP) — A written threat was found Friday on a Southwest Airlines flight, prompting authorities to unload the airplane away from the terminal after it landed at Houston, officials said.

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said a passenger found a threatening note and informed a flight attendant. She didn't have other details about the note.

The plane had taken off from Dallas around 11:30 a.m. and was originally scheduled to head to Corpus Christi after the stop in Houston.

TSA, along with Houston police, are planning to question passengers at an isolated area of the airport, she said.

No injuries were reported and no one was in custody related to the note, said Roger Smith, a spokesman for the City of Houston Aviation Department. Police, fire and medical authorities on the scene as a precaution.

The 136 passengers and five crew members got off the plane at an isolated end of the airfield. They were being checked by Southwest Airlines and airport security, Smith said.

"Without infringing on their rights, Southwest is making some type of check as the passengers leave," Smith said.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Striking in the air.... More USAToday.com

Judge dismisses flight attendant complaint against Northwest

 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge threw out a complaint by flight attendants who said Northwest Airlines was improperly training their replacements in case they strike.

The Professional Flight Attendants Association union had claimed that Northwest was changing their contract and creating a security risk by training replacement workers who had not been promised a job.

The union said trainees usually are promised a job as long as they finish training. It wanted a temporary restraining order to stop the training, which began July 30.

U.S. District Court Judge David S. Doty ruled on Friday that the dispute was minor. Under federal labor law, that means it can be decided by an arbitrator.

"We are pleased that the federal district court agrees that this is a matter to be addressed under our collective bargaining agreement with the PFAA," Northwest said in a written statement. It said training of the flight attendants would continue.

Northwest began training the flight attendants out of fear that PFAA flight attendants would refuse to cross a mechanic picket line.

Northwest's mechanics can strike after 12:01 a.m. ET on Aug. 20 if they don't reach a deal with the airline. Talks are currently stalled.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.   Posted 8/3/2005 8:24 AM

Strike looks less likely at AA than at NWA:

 In a vote this week, flight attendants at American subsidiary American Eagle authorized union leaders to call for a strike if they can't reach a new deal with management. But despite the strike vote, at least one union official says a work stoppage is not imminent. "The strike vote was called to show that the flight attendants want a contract, so that doesn't necessarily mean they want to strike," Corey Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants union, tells the Abilene Reporter-News (free registration). And, since no strike date has been set, Caldwell says any possible strike would likely be at least "a few" months away. Still, attendants at American Eagle are frustrated. "We're basically tired of being complimented for our hard work," says Reggie Salas, the president of the American Eagle flight attendants' association. "We're not being compensated for it." Still, things at AA's American Eagle look much better than the current situation at Northwest. With relations already chilly with the company's management, mechanics there broke off contracts negotiations yesterday. That comes just about two weeks before an Aug. 20 strike date at Northwest, The Associated Press reports. Posted 9:45 a.m.

Tunis air jet crashes... 13 killed(from USAtoday.com)

Tunis Air jet crashes off Sicily's coast, 13 killed

 

PALERMO, Sicily (AP) — A Tunisian airliner that reportedly lost engine power Saturday plunged into the choppy Mediterranean while trying to make an emergency landing in Sicily, and at least 13 people were killed, officials said. At least three of the 39 people on board were missing. A French ATR-42 twin-propeller jetliner. Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images

Some of the 23 survivors clung to the wings and fuselage of the Tuninter airline ATR-72 as they screamed to rescuers. The wreckage was battered by 10-foot waves and strong currents, delaying rescuers' arrival.

"Some people were on the wing, screaming, yelling for help," said Filippo Morgante, an official with the Palermo fire department, which sent boats out for the rescue.

"Others were on the fuselage, and some were trapped inside the plane. Some weren't wearing lifejackets. Maybe they didn't have the time to put them on."

The pilot and co-pilot survived.

The plane went down about 10 miles off Cape Gallo on Sicily's north coast, near Palermo's Falcone-Borsellino airport, authorities said. As divers searched for victims, bits of the passengers' luggage bobbed by: a black flip-flop, a book and a carryon bag resembling a picnic cooler.

The rescue operation went into the night, as fire boat crews and coast guard ships searched for the missing. The Italian news agency Apcom, quoting unidentified Palermo mortuary officials, said three bodies were later recovered, raising the death toll to 16, but that report could not immediately be confirmed.

In Tunisia, Tuninter CEO Moncef Zouari told a news conference that 13 people died, three were missing and 23 survived.

At Palermo's Giaccone Polyclinic, where the bodies were brought, coroner Paolo Procacciati told The Associated Press the victims included nine women, three men and a young girl.

The twin-propeller plane, operated by an affiliate of Tunisair, departed Bari, Italy, for the Tunisian resort of Djerba, which is popular with Italian vacationers.

The pilot radioed Rome airport aviation officials at 3:24 p.m. to report engine trouble and ask permission to make an emergency landing in Palermo, said Nicoletta Tommessile, a spokeswoman for ENAV, Italy's air safety agency.

Sixteen minutes later, the pilot told tower officials: "We're ditching in the sea," Tommessile said.

Waves as high as 10 feet and strong winds rocked the fuselage, Palermo port authority official Paolo Maioli said.

"The rescuers had to struggle against the wind, so the rescue times suffered a delay of at least 10 minutes in bringing help," Maioli said.

He said it took rescuers 40 minutes to arrive in their boats.

Fire department diver Salvatore Milazzo said the front end and tail of the plane had broken off when he arrived. Looking shaken and exhausted, he said divers pulled four bodies from the water — including a crew member in uniform — while police and coast guard boats recovered more.

"We freed a body which was trapped inside" the fuselage, Milazzo said, but it was unclear if he was referring to a victim or survivor.

SKY TG24 TV said the pilot survived and told ENAV officials that the engines lost power, but Tommessile said she could not immediately confirm that.

The pilot and co-pilot were among the survivors, said Giuseppe Ganci, a doctor at Palermo's Civic Hospital. He told the TV network that X-rays performed on the co-pilot found no major injuries, while the pilot had a neck injury.

Earlier, ENAV spokesman Adalberto Pellegrino said the aircraft was apparently intact when it hit the water.

Palermo Prosecutor Piero Grasso, who was at Palermo's port as survivors and bodies were being taken off rescue ships, said authorities ruled out terrorism.

Hours later, the tail broke off from the main wreckage, rescuers said. A large piece of the blue-painted fuselage was tossed by the choppy seas and kept afloat by a yellowflotation device attached to one end by divers.

Tunisian officials said all the passengers were Italian, and SKY TG24 said most were from the Puglia region in the heel of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula.

Palermo port official Vincenzo Pace told SKY TG24 that some bodies were found several miles from the wreckage after apparently being carried away by the current.

"The divers have confirmed that there are no bodies inside" the wreckage, Pace said.

Italian prosecutors will investigate any possible criminal cause, such as negligence, which might have forced the plane down. ENAV also was investigating.

Nine survivors were in serious condition, said Capt. Giuseppe Averna of the Italian border police's sea division.

Five survivors, including a young girl, were taken to Villa Sofia hospital, emergency room doctor Giuseppe Pumilia said. Many of the survivors were reported to be in shock, and others suffered broken bones, cuts and bruises, doctors said.

The ATR-72, which was built in France, has a two-person crew and seats up to 74 passengers. Its maiden flight was in 1988.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

FAN comment(S) of the week!!

Is this guy for REAL???

 

Dear Gold Wing Diva,

I love your journal and the insights you give. I am a 51 yr old male and I have adored flight attendants (female) since I was 7 years old. I flew across the country severaL times in the early 1960's, those sharp ladies that flew for TWA were very good to me on those flights. I still think the flight attendants make commercial aviation a pleasure (in part because it's nice to look at attractive women during during the flight), but also the pleasant conversation they give. Keep up the journal, I look forward to it! Sincerely, Dan

Comment from marsbarmartian3 - 7/24/05 6:20 PM

 

There are also alot of my attractive MALE co-workers out there who are just as pleasant and hard working as I am!  And didn't anyone ever tell you it's NOT polite to stare at people?  That has to be my biggest pet peeve when I am working, is passengers (especially men) STARING AT ME, and watching every single move that I make.  It makes me feel like I am a caged animal in a zoo...

 

Dear Gold Wing Diva,

For whatever it is worth, I adore female flight attendants and I think it is "oh so cool" that in an emergency flight attendants would rescue me!! Keep up the journal. Sincerely, Dan
Comment from marsbarmartian3 - 8/3/05 11:08 PM

 

So Dan are you saying that it wouldn't be "oh so cool" if one of my MALE co-workers pulled your day dreaming self out of a burning airplane instead?  Wake up and smell the instant coffee honey, male flight attendants can do just as good a job as any female flight attendant can.

Little something funny that I found!

From USATODAY.com

Didn't we learn anything from the Little Rock crash back in 1999???

 

Passenger jet burns after skidding off Toronto runway

TORONTO (AP) — A passenger jetliner carrying about 200 people erupted in flames Tuesday after skidding off a runway while landing in a fierce thunderstorm at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Black smoke billowed into the air as the wreck burned. Air France passenger jetliner skids off runway at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, Tuesday. Image from television, via AP

A Toronto radio station said some passengers were seen climbing from the plane, and that most of the others had been safely evacuated. (Video: Coverage of crash)

Police said the plane was an Air France A340 from Paris that was trying to land at Canada's busiest airport when it ran into trouble. There was a storm — with lightning and strong wind gusts — in the area at the time.

Police spokeswoman Diane Cossitt said she heard over police scanners that the passengers and crew were evacuated. "That is my understanding from what I've heard but I've got no confirmation one way or the other," she said.

Toronto Fire Services Capt. David Sheen told CNN that he understood some casualties had been taken to hospitals but had no information or their condition. (Graphic: Crash of Air France 358)

AM 680, an all-news station, reported live from the scene that there were two explosions on the plane. The station quoted a police official on the nearby freeway as saying two groups of passengers had been evacuated from the jet.

AM 680 also said some passengers could be seen climbing from the plane and that emergency workers said most of 252 people on board were safe.

The report could not immediately be confirmed.

<IMG height=1 src="http://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/clear.gif" width=10 border=0 \>      

Toronto's William Osler hospital was placed on "code orange" to prepare for injuries, according to MSNBC.

A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreck, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water. A government transportation highway camera recorded the burning plane, and the footage was broadcast live on television in Canada and the United States.

A portion of the plane's wing could be seen jutting from the trees as smoke and flames poured from the middle of its broken fuselage. At one point, another huge plume of smoke emerged from the wreckage, but it wasn't clear whether it was from an explosion.

The flaming ruin was next to the four-lane Highway 401, and some cars and trucks stopped on the roadway after the crash.

Corey Marks told CNN he was at the side of the highway when he watched the Air France plane touch down and crash.

"It was around 4 o'clock, it was getting really dark, and all of a sudden lightning was happening, a lot of rain was coming down," Marks said. "This plane ... came in on the runway, hits the runway nice. Everything looked good, sounds good and all of a sudden we heard the engines backing up. ... He went straight into the valley and cracked in half."

CNN reported the flight was Air France Flight 358, which was scheduled to arrive in Toronto at about 4 p.m. from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris.

"They made an approach in weather that was worse than what they anticipated," John Wiley, a retired Airbus pilot in Toronto, told CNN.

Environment Canada, the Canadian national weather service, had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the city of Toronto earlier in the afternoon. The warning noted that a rapidly developing thunderstorm was moving south into the area at 3:45 pm, which threatened the area with large hail, torrential downpours and wind gusts of up to 60 mph.

Thunderstorms create the possibility of wind shear, the sudden, dangerous air currents that can dash an airplane to the ground as it takes off or lands.

Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport handles over 28 million passengers a year. Located 17 miles west of Toronto in the town of Mississauga, it has three terminals. Air France operates out of Terminal 3.

The last major jumbo jet crash in North America was on Nov. 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 lost part of its tail and plummeted into a New York City neighborhood, killing 265 people. Safety investigators concluded that the crash was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively.

Paris-based Air France-KLM Group is the world's largest airline in terms of revenue. It is the product of the French flagship airline's acquisition last year of Dutch carrier KLM. For the year ended in March, the company earned $443 million on revenues of $24.1 billion.

Air France-KLM operates a fleet of 375 planes and flies 1,800 daily flights, according to the company's Web site. In the last fiscal year, it carried 43.7 million passengers to 84 countries around the globe.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.